Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

Custom Search
alt title(s): Stop Having Fun Guy
Why are all the interesting stages red?
No, you can't play with it, you won't enjoy it on as many levels as I do.
—Professor Frink, The Simpsons, "The PTA Disbands"

I agree that scrub mentality can be very annoying. But the competitive mentality isn't blameless, and has its share of jerks as well.
Falcon Pain, this trope's Discussion page

The gamer equivalent of the Arrogant Kung Fu Guy. He's a Hard Core gamer, plays in all tournaments, and knows everything about how to play. He knows all the secret moves (even the glitches), the most effective strategies, and the quickest ways to completely destroy his opponent. He's completely “above” the mantra of casual play: He doesn't play just for fun, he plays to win. He's good, and he knows it; he can just be a douche about it.

This kind of player is good, and there's nothing wrong with that. But he is also extremely arrogant. He's completely intolerant of play styles other than his own. If you challenge his beliefs, he'll automatically call you a Noob, a Scrub, or something similar. Anyone who doesn't play like him instantly simply doesn't know as much as he. You'll always see this kind of player arguing that the debated Game Breaker is completely and utterly legitimate. After all, it's not about playing, it's about winning, right? Much like the Scrub, the player probably won't be listening to logic or facts. It's either agree or be wrong. Expect this to cause a big annoying (but sometimes amusing) Pro-Scrub Flame War.

Yep, that's right, he's the opposite of the Scrub. But just as annoying.

This kind of player takes the "pro" mentality to an annoying extreme (generally giving other tournament players a bad name), while the Scrub takes the casual mentality to an annoying extreme (generally giving other casual players a bad name.) In the real world, there's room for both, and game companies generally try to put something in their games for both sides; see Player Archetypes for details.

To supplement something on the Scrub page: What ultimately makes the Stop Having Fun Guy undesirable isn't the rulesetting; it is the attitude. What distinguishes the Stop Having Fun Guy from a regular competitive/tournament player who simply likes playing to win is that the Stop Having Fun Guy believes that his way is the only proper way to play the game.

Is a specific subspecies of Fan Haters, who dislike/condescend "casual" gamers who don't play the same way they do. Also mixes with Complacent Gaming Syndrome where the players use only one or two characters/strategies/levels to make winning easier.

See also: Scrub, Serious Business, Fan Dumb, and especially Munchkins, who are the larval form of this. See Its Easy So It Sucks for the mentality that sometimes results from the single-player form of this.

For the love of God, please keep personal tales to Troper Tales, and remember this isn't when a person prefers/only uses a particular or rigid playstyle! It's when they belittle others for using a different style than theirs! DIFFERENCE! This is NOT Rules Lawyer, Complacent Gaming Syndrome, Challenge Gamer, OR Munchkin!


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Meta 

    Fighting Games 

    Role Playing Games 

    Rhythm Games 

    Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games 

    Newspaper Comics 

    First Person Shooters 

    Third Person Shooters 

    Other 

    Sports 

    Strategy 

    Web Original 

    Card Games